


Stay Here Forever

by DGCatAniSiri



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 22:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15649782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: Ryder's just defeated the Archon, and now he needs to get a chance to recover.





	Stay Here Forever

“We made it.”

Ryder could hardly believe it. It felt like he hadn’t been able to stop since landing on Habitat 7, on seeing the floating mountains, breathing the toxic air, and losing a father he’d never even really had. And now... Well, he was still the Pathfinder, so he couldn’t quite call it over, but... The Archon was dead. The kett were defeated. The Initiative and the angara could figure out what their next step was going to be, how to work together for the future of Heleus.

And, mercifully, Ryder could rest, at least for a little while. Lexi had mentioned that the come down from the various drugs she’d pumped him with, especially considering that he’d effectively died before she’d done so. 

Since Lexi had rushed on ahead to get Sara into the medical ward, since she’d suffered from the direct interface the Archon had put her through, Ryder figured that meant he was free to find a quiet corner, rest, recuperate... maybe die for a few hours or so.

“I would not recommend putting your system through another resuscitation effort, particularly so soon after your prior injuries.” 

“Humor, SAM. Sounds like you still need to work some on the finer points.”

As he made his way to the Tempest, which, fortunately, Kallo had landed fairly close by, he could practically feel the crowd that had assembled start looking for the Pathfinder, to congratulate him on the victory, and, upon realizing that he wasn’t right there in the center, start looking for him. 

Before he could tense in panic at the thought of being ambushed by an adoring crowd, he could hear Vetra barking at the crowd, likely telling them to disperse and get a move on – there was clean up to be done, the Hyperion had to be examined (Captain Dunn was probably already demanding Harry focus on the sleepers, rather than her), scientific work to get to, weren’t there any scientists among those who’d responded to the call for aid?

That gave him enough time to all but crawl into the ship. Fortunately, between Vetra, Gil, SAM, Lexi, and probably the others as well, the Tempest was almost certain to be off limits to anyone who simply wanted to get the Pathfinder to autograph or comment or direct anything. Tann could go fuck himself if he tried to force Ryder into the spotlight right now. Ryder could even probably contact Lexi and get an official doctor’s note on the subject. 

With the crew all off marveling at Meridian, the Tempest was eerily quiet. Ryder let his armor fall to the ground without a care – someone else could complain about how he was mistreating it and letting it get dinged and scuffed. He really didn’t care about it now. It had saved his life in combat, so he was grateful enough, but he just needed to get to his bed. That come down Lexi had mentioned was starting to hit him, and god did he need to be off his feet.

He barely made it to the bed when his legs gave out on him, and only just managed to pull his head to the pillow. 

***

The first thing that Ryder was aware of, besides the fleeting echo of the Archon wearing a tutu and yodeling the Star-Spangled Banner while doing the cancan in the middle of the Presidium (an image Ryder had no intention of delving into his psyche to uncover the meaning of), was the soft melody of some song he couldn’t immediately identify. 

He still felt the exhaustion of everything, his limbs moaning in protest at the very idea of moving from the ball he’d managed to curl up into. For a minute, he gave into that desire to simply ignore the outside world and just maintain the illusion of being asleep. 

Then he had a passing thought – if someone had put some music on, then that meant that there was someone else in here. SAM wasn’t the type to flip on the radio just for kicks, after all. And there was one person he could figure wouldn’t give a damn about any privacy seals Ryder might have set. Or, considering the state he’d been in when he’d come back on board the Tempest, might have intended to set. 

Groaning as he did so, Ryder slowly opened his eyes. Sure enough, there was Gil, slumped in the chair from the desk. He looked like he’d passed out at some point, and Ryder wasn’t sure he wanted to wake his boyfriend, knowing the hours he put into the Tempest’s engine.

If he were awake, Gil would probably have remarked on how Ryder was the one who’d literally died, if anyone should be concerned about someone’s wellbeing, it would probably be Gil for him... But that was the advantage of being the only one of them awake.

And yes, Ryder acknowledged, at this point, he was definitely awake. Aches and pains aside... He really needed to use the bathroom.

He managed to get himself up and to the bathroom, much as his body protested effectively his entire physical existence. As he returned to his quarters, he apparently managed to jolt Gil awake this time.

“Ryder...?” Gil said, rubbing at his eyes. “What time is it, anyway?”

“ _The Tempest has not yet had a chance to synchronize its chronometers with Meridian. However, it has been roughly twenty hours since the Archon was defeated._ ” SAM was here to help, after all.

Ryder let out a groan as he moved back to the bed. “I think I may sleep for another,” he muttered. His exhaustion had returned by the time that he’d made his way back into his room. Apparently, dying and being resurrected wore you out. Go figure. He collapsed in a heap on the bed, not even sure if he had the capability to crawl into a more comfortable position.

“Anything I can do for you?” Gil asked. “I mean, Cora’s already locked the Tempest down, and I’m pretty sure Vetra got Kandros to put APEX on monitor duty to make sure no meddling reporters try to get an exclusive interview.”

Ryder appreciated that – at least Keri T’Vessa kept a respectful line between them in her interviews. Other reporters would probably not be so accommodating of his personal boundaries.

Still, Ryder certainly felt there were a few other things that Gil could do to help him out. He reached out and tugged Gil close. Granted, right now, he probably didn’t have the strength to pull a ball of string closer, but Gil got the message quickly and let himself be pulled in. “You can get in this bed with me, and not leave it.”

Gil chuckled as he complied. “I think I can manage that.” He pulled Ryder close, holding him as the little spoon and nuzzling against the nape of Ryder’s neck. Despite the pain – the comedown from the drugs Lexi had pumped him full of to keep him standing to fight the Archon really was kicking his ass – the fact that he was alive was something to celebrate. But all he could truly think of was not existing for a while.

Ryder slipped back into the peaceful slumber of oblivion.

***

When Ryder next woke up, he was alone in the bed again. Outside, Meridian’s sky had darkened – it seemed the Remnant, the Jaardan, had designed the place with a day-night cycle. Good to know. He wondered what was going on out there, but didn’t immediately move to find out. He simply tried to become accustomed to being awake again – he figured that this time, he’d be conscious for more than five minutes. 

“Gil?” he called out. His voice sounded more like a thin croak than speech, but there was a glass of water already at his bedside table – obviously, someone had anticipated he’d be waking up soon. He practically gulped the whole thing down at once, hindered only by the pesky need to breathe. He set the glass down and looked around the room. 

“ _Ryder. It’s been four and a half hours since you last woke up. Gil has gone to recover the Nomad, as there were concerns that some of the scavengers from Kadara might be interested in acquiring it._ ” Ryder couldn’t help a chuckle – the Nomad seemed to have been adopted by his boyfriend as his own personal hot rod. “ _Your vital signs are still somewhat erratic. However, Doctor T’Perro has been using your implant to keep track of your recovery, and she says that she will approve limited activity. I will alert you if she believes you are endangering yourself_ ,” SAM offered. 

“Thanks, SAM.” It really should concern Ryder more how much SAM was effectively a broken personal boundary line, being a perpetual voice in the back of his mind, always aware unless Ryder made the active choice to remind him to butt out, and passed that medical information on to Lexi. But, so far, SAM hadn’t really given any reason to believe that he abused that privilege. 

So, with a bill of health that said that he could move around, Ryder tried to pull himself up. He’d managed to get to the bathroom earlier, he could handle this.

He nearly fell over no less than five times between the bed and the door. 

His scowl was nearly audible as he managed to fumble at the door switch. Come on, didn’t he deserve to not fall flat on his face at this point? He’d saved the entirety of the Initiative, bringing them to the heart of the vault network, and managed to defeat the bastard Archon who’d made the lives of the angara a living hell for like a century. Didn’t he deserve a little better from whoever or whatever ruled the universe? To no surprise, there was no answer forthcoming.

He held to the wall in order to keep himself standing, though it did seem he got stronger on his feet as he moved. He wanted to head towards the engine room, wait on Gil’s return, but when he looked towards the galley, he realized that he needed food desperately – he hadn’t eaten since before landing on Meridian, and it had to be at least twenty-four hours now. 

Fortunately, Drack hadn’t completely emptied their stores – a krogan and their redundant organs, even when they’d failed or been replaced, were easily able to take up a ship’s supply of food with little difficulty. But he’d apparently given thought to the needs of the non-krogan among the crew, and there was enough food for Ryder to throw together a meal.

It was an odd hodgepodge of a meal – scrambled eggs (Ryder didn’t have the patience to bother with anything fancier) and a solitary pancake, which concluded their stock of breakfast foods, meaning that he followed that up with a side plate of spaghetti. But it was food all the same. And at this point, he could easily get past the oddness of the combination, just so long as it meant that there would be food in his belly. Being a biotic had always meant an enhanced metabolism, a need for more food than normal (Ellen Ryder had often complained about how she didn’t know how she wasn’t eaten out of house and home by the twins – the memory sent a pang into Ryder’s heart, and he added that to the ‘feelings he wasn’t going anywhere near for the foreseeable future’ pile). He’d long since given up being a picky eater – a picky biotic didn’t last very long, especially not when they ended up in the Alliance. The fuel was a vital necessity.

He finished up, his stomach appeased for the time being. He had enough strength to wander back to his room. As he started shambling towards his bed, he heard the door open, and Gil ran to his side. “Whoa, easy there, Ryder!”

“Little late on that warning, Gil,” Ryder said with a teasing grin. “Pretty sure that should have come before I faced the Archon.”

The joke was lame, but it had the desired effect – Gil seemed to be reassured that Ryder would recover from this. “No one’s ever accused me of good timing.” Ryder flopped onto the bed, and, a little more carefully, Gil followed suit. “How are you feeling? Really?”

Ryder sighed. “Like everything still hurts. Though I can’t imagine Sara’s feeling any better.”

“Lexi said that she was putting Sara back in a coma. Supposed to help her heal faster.”

“I bet Sara was happy to hear that...” Not that a coma didn’t sound lovely right about now for him, but...

“I got the feeling Lexi wasn’t giving her a choice.”

“Great. She can stab another Ryder with her injections.” Lexi was surely ecstatic about the idea.

They were quiet for a while, the light generated by Meridian (filtered sunlight, drawn in by the outer shell, rather than direct from the source like on natural planets) shining in through the windows overhead. Despite it, Ryder still felt like he could fall back asleep.

“I could kill the Archon all over again for doing this to me,” Ryder muttered. “We have a new homeworld out there to explore, and here I am, stuck in bed.”

“Hey, I’d kill the Archon too, but for how bad he hurt you.” Gil reached out, caressing Ryder’s cheek. Ryder noticed that he’d set aside the work gloves he normally wore. He leaned into the touch. “He killed you, Ryder. It was only SAM acting quickly that... I could’ve lost you. I didn’t want to say anything when... You know, there was no choice, but... I was really scared for you.”

Ryder tried to burrow a little closer to Gil, even though they were already side by side on the bed. “I’m okay. I mean, okay, right now, I can barely get out of bed, but... I’ll be okay.”

“I know. And with some luck, the Archon was the worst Heleus had to offer.” Gil said it, but it was clear he didn’t believe it – the kett and their exaltation tech were still out there, there’d been that encounter with the kett Primus whose deal Ryder had refused, the Scourge lingered, with questions of who used it against the Jaardan, were they coming back, how did all the Remnant tech even work... There was still a lot for the Pathfinder to do, even if the Initiative now had a solid home in Andromeda. Ryder would be going back out there eventually, facing the unknown.

Reaching up to take Gil’s hand in his, Ryder gave his lover a supportive smile. “I’m here, Gil. I made it through. And right now... I don’t intend to go anywhere that isn’t with you.” He also didn’t intend to get out of this bed for the better part of the next day. 

“You’re a real romantic, Ryder,” Gil said with a gentle grin. “Maybe you should try out the poetry.”

“No, I at least know better than to even make that attempt.” The thought alone was terrifying – if Ryder tried out poetry, ‘Heleus, are you healing us?’ would seem like Edgar Allen Poe. 

“Well, now I’m gonna have to hear you try at some point. You got my attempts, it’s only fair. Maybe when Lexi lets her out, I’ll ask Sara.”

“Oh no you don’t. Your time with my sister is going to be closely monitored.”

And that was when Ryder knew, truly, that everything was going to be okay. They’d won. They’d found home. They’d come to rest.

Millions of light years and six centuries just to get here. And here was a good place to be.

Here was a good place to stay.


End file.
